LAS VEGAS — Becky Hammon waited and believed in this version of the Las Vegas Aces. The two-time champions are at their best when their guard trio is clicking on all cylinders around three-time MVP A’ja Wilson. It was a version that was missing for much of the season, and it certainly didn’t appear in Brooklyn during the first two semifinals.

“Man, that’s what we were waiting for,” Chelsea Gray said after masterfully guiding the Aces’ offense back to that version of itself.

The Aces not only survived from the brink of elimination, they went all out in a dominant 95-81 victory at home on Friday to keep their season and three-peat hopes alive. The exciting game started in the third quarter, with the Aces winning 21-6. The Liberty led the series 2-1 and will try to clinch a spot in the Finals on Sunday (3 p.m. ET, ABC).

Jackie Young led all scorers with 24 points and 4 three-pointers. Kelsey Plum scored 20 for a total score of 63.6%. Wilson continued a 19-point, 14-rebound effort. Gray neared her own double-double with 10 points and seven assists, threading needles invisible to everyone else. And newly crowned Sixth Player of the Year, Tiffany Hayes, scored eleven crucial points off the bench.

These are the Aces who have won two championships, and two hours before tipoff, Hammon said she expected them to show up “any minute.” At just the right time, they came out in full force in front of Michelob Ultra Arena’s 25th consecutive sold-out crowd.

“Everything was actually right for everyone,” Hammon said afterwards. “I thought it was probably our most complete game of the season.”

For the first time in this series, Wilson established her presence early with a turnaround jumper after a game-opening block from Gray. She added a pull-up bucket and a three-pointer within the first three minutes of the game. Young took over, answered a Liberty 3 and handed the keys to Gray, who scored seven of her 10 in the first half.

Hammon sent a message to Gray both privately and publicly after Game 1, telling reporters that the point guard should “take her matchup personally” and not let Betnijah Laney-Hamilton “stand up and bully you.” Gray was limited to four points and one assist in Game 1 and built on her 14 points and seven assists in Game 2. She sped past the Liberty’s All-Defensive star midway through the second of Game 3 and passed around her to a rolling Wilson to collect paint points that they had previously struggled to find.

Still, the Aces and Liberty continued to go back and forth throughout the first half with 18 lead changes and eight ties around the 2:55 mark. The Aces held space and led 52-49 at halftime. No team led by more than four and almost every category was close to a deadlock.

Yet they were all Aces.

“Even though we were only down three points that first half, it just didn’t feel right,” Liberty head coach Sandy Brondello said. “It was like, this is not how we play.”

Things didn’t feel any better for the Seafoam faithful in the third quarter. Wilson hit a jumper off a feed from Young, Young drained a 3, Plum finger rolled into a layup and Gray fired in her own 3 to speed into the 21-6 frame that closed the door on a possible sweep. The Liberty didn’t score until 8:02 (Aces led 57-54) until 26.2 seconds remained (73-55).

“We were so stuck defensively (and) recovered,” Gray said. “We were intentional on that end of the floor. If we are able to do that and hold a team like that to six points in the third quarter. They have goal scorers there, so it was crucial to be able to do that.”

The Liberty’s leading scorer nearly finished the night without a bucket. Sabrina Ionescu only scored on a technical free throw nine minutes into the fourth quarter. Her only basket in seven attempts was a three-pointer at 8:08. Hammon wanted her team to at least get a C-plus for guarding the Liberty’s most improved superstar.

When they needed it most, the team delivered an A-plus. Brondello credited their urgency and gave Ionescu little room to operate. Gray said they were successful in their attention to detail after giving up too many layups in each of the first two games. The Aces won the title 42-28, including 20-10 in the second half.

Ionescu has scored fewer than 10 points twice this season, both in limited minutes. Breanna Stewart couldn’t get much going with 19 points. She and Brondello each said before the game that it would be the toughest to finish against a team willing to throw everything at the Liberty to stay alive.

“They’re going to be aggressive, they’re going to use their fans, they’re going to use the momentum behind it,” Stewart said after the game. “And I don’t think we were prepared for that. We didn’t come to embrace the hard things. Because this shit ain’t easy. And we saw that tonight.”

Jonquel Jones was forced to the bench for three fouls in the last four minutes of the first half and did not finish with the double goal that the team always has in front of it. She had 11 points and six rebounds. Leonie Fiebich had 10 points, and Courtney Vandersloot, who drew an uncharacteristic technical shout at an official after a travel call during Liberty’s drought in the third quarter, scored nine points off the bench.

“They came out and did what they had to do,” Brondello said. “Now it’s the way we come back on Sunday.”